His full name was Kerwish Razmataz I'm a little Tonka truck. He was named Razmataz after my mom's favorite lilly, but we called him taz for short. He was supposed to have been a breeding dog, until his siblings wound up with liver shunts, so he was clipped to end the line

My dad's black schnauzer of 12 years died yesterday. He was suffering from 18 months of treatment for cushing's disease and kidney failure.

We remember him as the spunky guy who loved to chase his basket ball sized tennisball up and down the stairs for hours and hours until the vet told us to stop because his muscles became overdeveloped. He never stopped playing with big balls in the yard, pushing and checking them in the yard like a soccer pro.

We got him in 2000, after our previous schnauzer had a stroke as a result of cushings. It was heartbreaking when Taz came down with it too. This time we had that properly diagnosed and under control. We weren't expecting his kidneys to fail. My dad is all torn up about it. Taz really left a paw print on his heart.